Why She Plays: Chanell Britten

When she was seven years old, Chanell Britten was playing on a soccer team with eleven boys and one other girl.

Instead of letting the boys push her around, or using it as an excuse to not play well, Britten used it as motivation to get better.

“If they ran, I ran faster,” Britten said. “If they shot the ball, I shot the ball harder. It gave me the motivation to push harder and keep going.”

Now, a sophomore at Brockway Area High School, Britten is showing people from all over the area what she and her family saw when she was seven years old playing with the boys.

Britten currently has 66 goals in two seasons. She finished her freshman year with a team high 24 goals, including one in the last 20 minutes of the District 9 Championship game.

While she usually puts her goals behind her after they happen, Britten remembers that one.

After receiving a pass from her teammate, Britten made a move on her defender and was able to take the ball to the 30-yard-line where she notched a goal into the upper right hand of the corner to make the score 2-0 with 20 minutes to play.

“I couldn’t even describe it,” Britten said. “There was so much emotion running through me. know I cried when it crossed that line and my teammates hugged me. The fans were cheering so loud. All of the emotions were just running so high.”

Britten’s path to that moment wasn’t as effortless as she made it seem on the field. Behind that goal there was some doubt and a lot of questioning if she still wanted to play.

Three days a week in the winter and twice a week in the spring, Britten travels to Pittsburgh to practice with her travel soccer team, Northern Steel.

There was so much emotion running through me. know I cried when it crossed that line and my teammates hugged me.

She leaves Brockway at 2:30 p.m. to get to Pittsburgh in time for her 4:00 p.m. practice. After 

practice ends at 6:00, she gets dinner and typically leaves Pittsburgh around 7:30 p.m., not getting home until after 10:00.

On weekends, Britten travels to soccer tournaments. She leaves around 11:30 a.m. and drives between six and seven hours to get to the tournament where she plays as many as six games over two days.

On tournament weekends, Britten gets home around 10:00 p.m. on Sunday. Giving her a little bit of time to do her homework and get some sleep before she starts it all again the next day.  

“I struggled with time management,” Britten said. “I was putting soccer in second place, not with school, but I put soccer second and just forgot about it.”

But that didn’t last long. All it took was a talk with her dad, the man who gave Britten her first soccer ball when she was three years old, for her to realize making those sacrifices was worth playing her favorite game.

If I was younger I would say to make my dad happy. But now I’ve went out every game and played for myself.  

Questioning whether or not she wanted to continue to play helped Britten find something more than her love for the game; it helped her find the reason why she plays.

“If I was younger I would say to make my dad happy.” Britten said. “But I’ve went out every game and played for myself. Everyone has always told me to play for someone else, but this year I realized that I have to play for me, push the full 80 minutes.”

Playing for herself and realizing every time she steps on the field could be her last time, gave her the drive she needed to get back in the game and to be something better than she was.

That drive has continued into her sophomore year, allowing her to overcome different obstacles.  Not only is she playing with an injured knee that needs six months of rest to heal, “and there’s not really six months to play around with,” she said laughing. Britten is also playing against teams that are structuring their defenses against her.

Not surprisingly, teams are starting to double team the sophomore who already has 66 career goals. But Britten only sees this as a better opportunity for her team.

“It helps our team because if they put two on me then the wing is always open,” Britten said. “Or our midfield is always open because there are two on me.”

I want to walk out of school with four D9 titles

Whether she is scoring goals or looking for the open teammate, Britten is willing to do whatever she has to do to help her team win another (or three more) district championships.

“I want to walk out of school with four D9 titles,” Britten said. “No matter how many goals I scored and no matter how many good games or bad games I had. I just want to do it for the team.”

As for the boys she played with when she was seven years old, they’re still keeping up with her.

“I’ll see them in the halls and they’ll joke around and say ‘Oh, you only had three goals that night?’ or ‘Oh, you only had four that night?’” Britten said. “The bond is still there.”